1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to heating with electromagnetic wave energy in a conductive cavity, and more particularly, pertains to a microwave oven cooking time scale for use with a microwave oven.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Those concerned with microwave ovens have long recognized the need for a microwave oven cooking time scale which permits a user to determine the cooking time for a particular type of food at a particular temperature for a microwave oven. The present invention fullfills this need.
In the past, cooking time determination for a particular type of food has been made by reviewing of one of the numerous microwave oven cookbooks presently available in the market or furnished with a user's microwave oven to correlate the weight of a particular type of food to a cooking time. While this program of determination has been somewhat satisfactory, the program of determination of cooking time has been less than accurate and sometimes resulted in food which was either undercooked or overcooked. Some cookbooks also failed to take into account particular cooking factors such as heating efficiencies of the food, moisture content of the food, and power output of the microwave oven.
Recently, a platform scale has been offered at the market which operates with microwave ovens in the six to seven hundred watt range, and determines the cooking time and power setting to use based on the food category and quantity of food to be cooked. The platform scale is not an accurate process of weighing compared to a balance beam scale and in addition, the particular scale does not take into account the cooking factors such as heating efficiency of the food and moisture content of the food.
The microwave oven cooking time scale overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art by providing a scale which permits accurate determination of cooking times for food in a microwave oven and also takes into account secondary cooking factors.